The bestselling book for every boy from eight to eighty, covering essential boyhood skills such as building tree houses*, learning how to fish, finding true north, and even answering the age old question of what the big deal with girls is.

In this digital age there is still a place for knots, skimming stones and stories of incredible courage. This book recaptures Sunday afternoons, stimulates curiosity, and makes for great father-son activities. The brothers Conn and Hal have put together a wonderful collection of all things that make being young or young at heart fun—building go-carts and electromagnets, identifying insects and spiders, and flying the world's best paper airplanes.

The completely revised American Edition includes:

The Greatest Paper Airplane in the WorldThe Seven Wonders of the Ancient WorldThe Five Knots Every Boy Should KnowStickballSlingshotsFossilsBuilding a Treehouse*Making a Bow and ArrowFishing (revised with US Fish)Timers and TripwiresBaseball's "Most Valuable Players"Famous Battles-Including Lexington and Concord, The Alamo, and Gettysburg Spies-Codes and CiphersMaking a Go-CartNavajo Code Talkers' DictionaryGirlsCloud FormationsThe States of the U.S. Mountains of the U.S.NavigationThe Declaration of Independence Skimming StonesMaking a PeriscopeThe Ten CommandmentsCommon US TreesTimeline of American History

* For more information on building treehouses, visit www.treehouse-books.com and www.stilesdesigns.com or see "Treehouses You Can Actually Build" by David Stiles

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Produktbeschreibungen

Amazon.de

Equal parts droll and gorgeous nostalgia book and heartfelt plea for a renewed sense of adventure in the lives of boys and men, Conn and Hal Iggulden's The Dangerous Book for Boys became a mammoth bestseller in the United Kingdom in 2006. Adapted, in moderation, for American customs in this edition (cricket is gone, rugby remains; conkers are out, Navajo Code Talkers in), The Dangerous Book is a guide book for dads as well as their sons, as a reminder of lore and technique that have not yet been completely lost to the digital age. Recall the adventures of Scott of the Antarctic and the Battle of the Somme, relearn how to palm a coin, tan a skin, and, most charmingly, wrap a package in brown paper and string. The book's ambitions are both modest and winningly optimistic: you get the sense that by learning how to place a splint or write in invisible ink, a boy might be prepared for anything, even girls (which warrant a small but wise chapter of their own).

Inside The Dangerous Book for Boys

Figure 8 Knot

Sheet Bend Knot

The Battle of Waterloo

Questions for Conn Iggulden

Conn and Hal Iggulden are two brothers who have not forgotten what it was like to be boys. Conn taught for many years before becoming one of the most admired and popular young historical novelists with his Emperor series, based on the life of Julius Caesar, and his newly embarked series on Genghis Khan, while Hal is a theater director. We asked Conn about their collaboration.

Amazon.com: It's difficult to describe what a phenomenon The Dangerous Book for Boys was in the UK last year. When I would check the bestseller list on our sister site, Amazon.co.uk, there would be, along with your book, which spent much of the year at the top of the list, a half-dozen apparent knockoff books of similar boy knowledge. Clearly, you tapped into something big. What do you think it was?

Iggulden: In a word, fathers. I am one myself and I think we've become aware that the whole "health and safety" overprotective culture isn't doing our sons any favors. Boys need to learn about risk. They need to fall off things occasionally, or--and this is the important bit--they'll take worse risks on their own. If we do away with challenging playgrounds and cancel school trips for fear of being sued, we don't end up with safer boys--we end up with them walking on train tracks. In the long run, it's not safe at all to keep our boys in the house with a Playstation. It's not good for their health or their safety.

You only have to push a boy on a swing to see how much enjoys the thrill of danger. It's hard-wired. Remove any opportunity to test his courage and they'll find ways to test themselves that will be seriously dangerous for everyone around them. I think of it like playing the lottery--someone has to say "Look, you won't win--and your children won't be hurt. Relax. It won't be you."

I think that's the core of the book's success. It isn't just a collection of things to do. The heroic stories alone are something we haven't had for too long. It isn't about climbing Everest, but it is an attitude, a philosophy for fathers and sons. Our institutions are too wrapped up in terror over being sued--so we have to do things with them ourselves. This book isn't a bad place to start.

As for knockoff books--great. They'll give my son something to read that doesn't involve him learning a dull moral lesson of some kind--just enjoying an adventure or learning skills and crafts so that he has a feeling of competence and confidence--just as we have.

Amazon.com: You made some changes for the U.S. edition, and I for one am sorry that you have removed the section on conkers, if only because it's such a lovely and mysterious word. What are (or what is) conkers?

Iggulden: Horse chestnuts strung on a shoelace and knocked against one another until they shatter. In the entire history of the world, no one has ever been hurt by a conker, but it's still been banned by some British schools, just in case. Another school banned paper airplanes. Honestly, it's enough to make you weep, if I did that sort of thing, which I try not to. Reading Jane Austen is still allowed, however.

Amazon.com: What knowledge did you decide was important to add for American boys? I notice in both editions you have an excellent and useful section on table football, as played with coins. Is paper football strictly an American pastime? I'm not sure I could have gotten through the fourth grade without it.

Iggulden: I like knowing the details of battles, so Gettysburg and the Alamo had to go in, along with the Gettysburg address, stickball, state capitals, U.S. mountains, American trees, insects, U.S. historical timelines, and a lot of others. Navajo code talkers of WWII is a great chapter. It probably helps that I am a huge fan of America. It was only while rewriting for the U.S. that I realized how many positive references there already are. You have NASA and NASA trumps almost anything.

As for paper football, ever since I thought of putting the book together, people keep saying things like "You have rockets in there, yes? Everyone loves rockets!" Paper football is the first American one, but there will be many others. No book in the world is long enough to put them all in--unless we do a sequel, of course.

Amazon.com: Do you think The Dangerous Book for Boys is being read by actual boys, or only by nostalgic adults? Have you seen boys getting up from their Xboxes to go outside and perform first aid or tan animal skins or build go-carts?

Iggulden: I've had a lot of emails and letters from boys who loved the book--as well as fathers. I've had responses from kids as young as ten and an old man of 87, who pointed out a problem with the shadow stick that we've since changed. The thing to remember is that we may be older and more cynical every year, but boys simply aren't. If they are given the chance to make a go-cart with their dad, they jump at it. Mine did. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to know the book is being used with fathers and sons together, trying things out. Nothing is more valuable to a boy than time with his dad, learning something fun--or something difficult. That's part of the attitude too. If it's hard, you don't make it easy, you grab it by the throat and hang on for as long as it takes.

The book is often bought by fathers, of course. Their sons don't know Scott of the Antarctic is a great adventure story. How could they if it isn't taught any more? Good, heroic stories don't appear much in modern school curriculums--and then we wonder why boys don't seem interested.

Amazon.com: And finally, on to the important questions: Should Pluto still be a planet? And what was the best dinosaur?

Iggulden: Pluto is a planet. I know there are scientists who say it isn't, but it's big enough to be round and it has a moon, for crying out loud. Of course it's a planet. Give it ten years and they'll be agreeing with me again.

As for the best dinosaur, it depends what you mean by best. For sheer perfection, it probably has to be the shark and the crocodile. Modern ones are smaller but their record for sheer survival is pretty impressive. I only hope humanity can do as well. The only thing that will stop us is worrying too much.

Pressestimmen

Praise for 'The Dangerous Book for Boys' 'The perfect handbook for boys and dads.' Daily Telegraph 'Full of tips on how to annoy your parents'. Evening Standard 'An old-fashioned compendium of information on items such as making catapults and knot-tying...the end of the PlayStation may have been signalled.' The Times 'Just William would be proud. A new book teaching boys old-fashioned risky pursuits...has become a surprise bestseller.' Daily Mail 'If you want to know how to make crystals, master NATO's phonetic alphabet...and build a workbench, look no further.' Time Out
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Put together all of your cub scout and boy scout manuals, your favorite books about masculine activities, and your favorite memories about growing up as a boy, and you'll find them all somewhere in The Dangerous Book for Boys. In addition, you'll find answers to questions you've always wondered about . . . written at a boy's level of understanding.

As I read pages about tying knots, forming and launching paper airplanes, picking out a Swiss army knife, heat the equator, making a bow and arrows, understanding grammar, making timers and tripwires, reading U.S. Naval flag codes, creating and decoding ciphers, forming crystals, learning to juggle, practicing first aid, star charts of constellations, and famous battles, I was once again eight years old. I didn't know it was possible, but my body felt smaller and suppler. I could remember where I'd first learned about all of those things, in many cases remembering what I hadn't thought of in decades.

As a connection to the younger generation, this book is marvelous because you can create a common territory beyond the borders of video games, MP3 files, and exotic sports. In addition, you can relate to you young friend or relative your own experiences in these areas, fields that young people don't know how to visit otherwise.

After you've looked at this book, I'm sure you'll agree with me that every boy deserves the chance to add this learning and these experiences to his boyhood.

I'm sure there will be another edition of this book someday. When it comes out, Mr. Iggulden, please do me a favor and include a section on the rules of cricket. I've never been able to completely follow that game. Then, you'll have made my second childhood perfect.

Put together all of your cub scout and boy scout manuals, your favorite books about masculine activities, and your favorite memories about growing up as a boy, and you'll find them all somewhere in The Dangerous Book for Boys. In addition, you'll find answers to questions you've always wondered about . . . written at a boy's level of understanding.

As I read pages about tying knots, forming and launching paper airplanes, picking out a Swiss army knife, heat the equator, making a bow and arrows, understanding grammar, making timers and tripwires, reading U.S. Naval flag codes, creating and decoding ciphers, forming crystals, learning to juggle, practicing first aid, star charts of constellations, and famous battles, I was once again eight years old. I didn't know it was possible, but my body felt smaller and suppler. I could remember where I'd first learned about all of those things, in many cases remembering what I hadn't thought of in decades.

As a connection to the younger generation, this book is marvelous because you can create a common territory beyond the borders of video games, MP3 files, and exotic sports. In addition, you can relate to you young friend or relative your own experiences in these areas, fields that young people don't know how to visit otherwise.

After you've looked at this book, I'm sure you'll agree with me that every boy deserves the chance to add this learning and these experiences to his boyhood.

I'm sure there will be another edition of this book someday. When it comes out, Mr. Iggulden, please do me a favor and include a section on the rules of cricket. I've never been able to completely follow that game. Then, you'll have made my second childhood perfect.